tour guide digital marketing strategy example
TRANSCRIPT
Vision Statement – Getmeaguide to be one of the world’s leading portals that connects travellers and
tour guides
Getmeaguide is a portal that will connect travellers with tour guides across the world.
The aim is to put the traveller in control and the tour guides will bid for business as in an auction
system.
The strategy sets out the state of this market and the major competitors that Getmeaguide will be
going up against. And from this we have established the objectives that we want to achieve and the
strategy and tactical tools that will allow us to reach our vision.
The differential advantage is that the traveller is in control and the tour guides bid for business and
we will highlight this in all communications
Executive Summary
The benefit to travellers is that they don’t waste time with guides that don’t respond or are lousy or
who are too busy
The review and rating system ensures that clients make informed decision when choosing a tour
guide and avoid any that have negative reviews.
The benefit to tour guides is that they have regular work and through maintaining good work
standards, this can be revealed in their profile and will win them more work and increase their
earnings.
Our platform will also eliminate the need for intermediaries and save increase the income of tour
guides by over 50%.
To keep clients and travellers safe, all guides are vetted and they should maintain a minimum positive
feedback to continue having the privilege of bidding on the site.
Executive Summary
The tour guide industry is a growth area and in the US alone there are over 34,000 tour guides
(1). They work in a wide range of industries like museums, historical sites, public buildings and art
galleries.
Many tour guides have second jobs so that they can make a living outside of the peak season
(2). Our platform will make it easier for them to find work outside of the peak summer season.
Tourism is a growth industry and in 2013 it grew by 5% to 1.07 billion and a UNWTO forecast for
2014 is that it will grow by 4 – 4.5% (3)
Market Analyses
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Database of registered tour guides
Strong knowledge of tour guide industry
Weaknesses
Unknown brand
Financial resources to take it to mass market
Threats
Rise in global violence and war
Security threats
Opportunities
Growth in global tourism
Europe has experienced the fastest growth at over
5%
Competitorshttp://www.toursbylocals.com/
Connects travellers with local guides. Based in Canada with a worldwide presence. A good Alexa Rank of 65,000 revealing it is an established site with high traffic volumes. But the main searches according to Alexa are not for the brand. On Google PPC and Organic Search.
Competitorshttps://www.vayable.com/
Emphasises the joy to be had as a group with local tour guides. An established brand with the
primary search keyword being ‘Vayable’ showing strong brand awareness.
Objectives
1. 5000 UK registered travellers by 31 Aug 2015
2. 20,000 registered global tour guides by 31 Aug
2015
This is a ratio of 1:4 and means tour guides have a great
chance of winning a job whilst ensuring that they put
forward a good proposal and work towards a positive review.
Target Market (Segments)
There are two primary markets we will be targeting with various segments within.
Our promotional tools will target these two markets
1.Travellers - relatively wealthy and seasoned UK travellers who want a private
tour guide for say 200-400 EUR a day. Age is 25 – 49 year old males and females
and reside mostly in large cities like London
2. Tour Guides – Our primary target is tour guides located in Western Europe and
the USA.
Product
Our product is a portal where travellers post a job and tour guides in the specific country bid for the
job.
It includes:
Website – responsive
Mobile app
Video
Review and rating system
A multi-language website that changes language according to the browser language settings of the
visitor. Or they can choose a language when they arrive at the site.
Product
Prospects will post a job and tour guides will bid any amount they want. Then prospect is free to choose any proposal they want based on the bid amount, reviews, location and experience of tour guide.
Each tour guide will have a page that includes information about their service, what their rate is, which sites they cover, reviews and ratings and other personal details like their name, how long they have been on the site and when they are available.
Price
We will take a commission of 10% for every booking made by a traveller on our platform.
Our pricing takes into consideration all the services we offer and the cost of running Getmeaguide
which include advertising costs, staff, hosting and other variable costs.
Promotions Mix
We are launching in Western Europe and USA and will roll out to the rest of Europe and around the
globe.
PPC
PPC – Bing and Adwords –Our launch campaign will be for UK travellers and will begin in Western
European nations – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal – and the USA.
90,000 visitors from the next 6 months on a £3000 monthly budget and Average cost per click (CPC)
of 20p. This will bring us 15,000 visitors from PPC per month and over the next 6 months that would
be 90,000 visitors. So we will be looking at a conversion rate of about 5% to achieve objective 1.
Boost campaign spend and CPC rates during the summer months.
Promotions Mix
Search Campaign– At launch we will create a Search UK campaign targeting our primary target of
wealthy travellers looking for a tour guide in the major cities and locations of Western Europe and the
USA. This will be a direct response campaign and we will be seeking to get people to sign up
Display 1– A display campaign to run in the UK to raise brand awareness amongst our target market
and we will create banners and place them on sites that are part of the Google Adsense programme and
frequented by our target audience – these include news sites, financial sites, entertainment sites and
other sites like tourist sites we’ve identified as visited by our target demographic
Display 2 – A display campaign targeting tour guides in the destinations our travellers are looking to
visit. So it will have different banner Ads that will be placed on tourist sites and competitor sites that
tour guides are likely to visit.
Marketing Mix - Place
Online PR
Press Releases – At launch – Hire a PR expert to write and publish a press release about the launch of
Getmeaguide highlighting the differential advantage, strengths and benefits of the service
SEO
We will research keywords that people use when looking for our services and will include these in the
Title and meta tags and in website content.
We will setup Google Analytics tracking, Google and Bing Webmaster Tools to measure and manage
the traffic coming to the site and use this data to optimise the website content
Social Media
Setup Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts and hire a freelance social media expert to create the
cover, the look and manage the accounts each month
Marketing Mix - Promotions
Affiliate Marketing – We will work with affiliates on one or more of the leading affiliate networks
such as Affiliate Window or Commission Junction to drive traffic to our site and increase conversions.
Affiliates will be paid a commission for sending new travellers to our site who register and then post a
job. This will be set at 5% of the total amount of the job posted
Video – Create a promotional video, no longer than 2 minutes that highlights the key features and
benefits of Getmeaguide. The video will be posted to YouTube and other video sites and we will create
a campaign in AdWords to promote it on YouTube.
Remarketing
Many visitors to the site will leave without registering or posting a job, so we will want to retarget them
with banner Ads as they use other websites in their course of using the internet. This is to remind
them of our site and get them to come back and register or post a job.
Budget
Cost Responsibility Date
Adwords/Bing £3000 Mike 1 April
Online PR £60 Mike 1 April
Affiliate Marketing £300 Mike 1 May
SEO £200 Mike 1 April
Video £150 Pierre 1 April
Social Media £100 Mike 1 April
Web Development £5000 Pierre 9 Feb
Logo £100 Pierre 9 Feb
Trademark £170 Pierre 9 Feb
Total £9080
This is the launch budget that will help us achieve our objectives